back into the kitchen and spoke tothe chef. He thanked me for inter-rupting his cooking so that he couldspeak to the woman. “sometimesthey just need an opportunity tospeak their truth,” he said. “After all,she doesn’t have control over muchin her life. Listening to her opinionon the quality of our porridge is theleast i can do for her.”He clearly recognizedthat she was not merelya homeless woman buta person with inherentdignity. in choosing tolisten to her so atten-tively, he exercised hisoption for the poor and vulnerable. =

Ultimately the call to preferential
love for people who are poor and
vulnerable stems
from the reality that
each of us, no matter
our economic status,
is created in the image and likeness of
God. We have inherent human dignity
and the right to life. That means we
also have a right to those things that
are necessary to live a dignified life,
including food, shelter, education,
employment, health care, and housing.

That became very clear to me
as a novice when i ministered at the
Passage day Centre. in addition to
my toast duties, i sometimes helped
out on the hot breakfast line. one
day i served an elderly woman a
large helping of porridge, or as we
Americans like to call it, oatmeal.
A few moments later she returned,
her bowl barely touched. “i’d like to
speak to the chef,” she declared in a
very dignified voice.

i went back into the kitchen and
relayed the message. The gentleman who had been cooking that
day’s breakfast put down his spatula,
smoothed out his apron, and walked
out to the front counter. They engaged in a lengthy and civilized discussion on the preferred qualities of
porridge. Apparently in her opinion
that day’s batch of porridge had been
far too runny.

A few hours later after we closeddown our breakfast operation i went

Each of us, nomatter our economicstatus, is createdin the imageand likeness of God.

“

For more on the riches of Catholic
social teaching go to “Catholic social
teaching: A guide” on Vocationnet-
work.org.